After the exit of Lovie Smith, Halas Hall has seen many new faces and the Bears will look to find a new identity.

Let’s recap what has happened since the Bears season abruptly ended:

Lovie Smith was fired along with his entire offensive staff.

The Defensive staff was the key part of the team that Phil Emery wanted to keep, however with the departure of the head coach that hired them all, many decided to go elsewhere. Rod Marinelli went to Dallas with defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin in town while Babich became defensive coordinator of the Jacksonville Jaguars.

With the hiring of esteemed CFL coach Marc Trestman, he bought along a former colleague and well-respected offensive line coach in Aaron Kromer, who will also serve as Offensive Coordinator. Many of his coaches from the Montreal Alouettes followed him as well.

Skip Peete, former runningbacks coach for the Dallas Cowboys and Joe DeCamillas, the special teams coordinator in Dallas, both moved to Chicago in their respective fields.

Jay Cutler’s quarterback coach will be Matt Cavanaugh who is replacing Jeremy Bates after a three year stint with the Bears.

Free Agency

Phil Emery broke into free agency with the signing of LT Jermon Bushrod and TE Martellus Bennett. Both were top rated free agents at their positions.

With the signing of Martellus Bennett and blocking TE Steve Maneri, the Bears were able to cut Kellen Davis and Matt Spaeth clearing up a little bit of cap space.

To go along with the offensive trend, Emery was able to nab Matt Slauson as well as Eben Britton, free agents from the New York Jets and Jacksonville Jaguars, respectively. The only holdovers from the original starting line(s) were eventually cut to meet the 53 man roster. This included J’Marcus Webb, Edwin Williams, and Johnathan Scott.

Defensively, the Bears were able to keep all 2012 starters except for Brian Urlacher and Nick Roach. They were replaced by D.J. Williams and James Anderson. The loss of D.J. Moore to the Panthers opened up a competition between sophomore Isaiah Frey and veteran Kelvin Hayden. With Kelvin Hayden needing season-ending hamstring surgery the job went to Frey.

All 6 draft picks of Phil Emery’s 2nd draft were kept and have shown future potential.

With the game against the Bengals coming up. Marc Trestman and Jay Cutler will have a prime time to show improvement in the offense, which is the main reason for the new regime. Time is not on their side however as the Bears organization, fans, commentators and our division rivals are all watching carefully and waiting.

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Written by Smiley
Raised a Chicago Bears fan. I watch all sports and have figured out a way to watch 12 hours of NFL every Sunday, sometimes watching multiple games at times. I like long walks on the beach with the actress of my dreams with a cup of ginger ale. I am a young person so I have opinions but I am agreeable.